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from the escape-from-the-return-to-the-moon dept.
The Washington Post reports that NASA "has canceled its only lunar rover currently in development," Resource Prospector. From Wikipedia:
Resource Prospector is a cancelled mission concept by NASA of a rover that would have performed a survey expedition on a polar region of the Moon. The rover was to attempt to detect and map the location of volatiles such as hydrogen, oxygen and lunar water which could foster more affordable and sustainable human exploration to the Moon, Mars, and other Solar System bodies.
The mission concept was still in its pre-formulation stage, when it was scrapped in April 2018. The Resource Prospector mission was proposed to be launched in 2022.
takyon: Meanwhile, NASA is "pushing hard on deep space exploration" with the Moon as its goal.
Also at Space.com, The Verge, and Fortune.
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Monday April 30 2018, @07:15PM
I believe you're correct, but I don't believe this is NASA's fault. If you were an agency that was forced to bend to every half-assed whim of whatever dumbass happened to control your purse strings, how effective would YOU be?
US politicians control what missions NASA has to focus on, not NASA.
And I'm honestly not surprised NASA problems cost 10+ times what they really ought to. Working for NASA is probably such an incredibly demoralizing thing, that they have to pay premium to everyone just to make it worth it to stay on board. I know if I was working there, I'd be demanding exactly that or I'd jump ship first opportunity I got.